Nutrition

Pre-Pregnancy

Pregnancy

 

Articles:

• Pregnancy - Caffeine And Pregnancy
• Pregnancy Tips - Dieting And Pregnancy

 

 

 

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Pregnancy - Caffeine And Pregnancy

By: Bradley

 

Caffeine is one of the most loved stimulants in America! But now that you are pregnant, you may need to lighten up on the daily intake of your favorite drinks and treats. The real question up for debate is: What amount of caffeine is safe? While it is best not to 'overworry' about the chocolate bar you may have inhaled last night (yes…chocolate has caffeine), if you find the effects of caffeine on your pregnancy worrisome, perhaps you would be best suited avoiding caffeine altogether.

Do I have to give up caffeine now that I'm pregnant?

Not necessarily. You can still enjoy your favorite caffeinated drinks as long as you don't overdo it. After years of controversy over the issue, most researchers now believe that, although caffeine does cross the placenta, moderate amounts (less than 300 milligrams a day) won't harm your baby.

First, caffeine is a stimulant and a diuretic, so it increases blood pressure and heart rate (not recommended during pregnancy), and causes frequent urination that could lead to dehydration. While you are in control of the exact amount of caffeine that enters your body, your baby is not; caffeine crosses the placenta and acts on your baby just as it acts on you. Normally, the effects of caffeine on an adult wear off in six hours, but in pregnant women, it may take twice as long to leave the body. Also, because the baby is still developing he will not be able to metabolize the caffeine efficiently which could result in altered sleep patterns and movement in the later stages of pregnancy.

In effort to prepare for pregnancy, many women eat better and exercise before conception to ensure that their bodies are healthy and ready for implantation of a fertilized embryo. Some studies have actually found a link between high amounts of caffeine consumption and delayed conception, with women who consumed more than 300 mg of caffeine per day twice as likely to have conception delayed a full year or more compared with women who consumed less than 300 mg per day. While low to moderate consumption seems safe, heavy caffeine drinkers may want to start cutting back even when they begin trying for a baby. No studies have been done on the effects of caffeine on sperm.

What are the Effects of Caffeine?

If you notice yourself feeling jittery after you have has a lot of coffee or tea, there's a good reason for it. Caffeine can cause a number of physical side effects, including:

* increased heart rate
* increased blood pressure
* increased sweat production

Caffeine also acts as a diuretic. This means that it causes you to lose fluid from your body, which can leave you dehydrated and fatigued. If your body absorbs too much caffeine, it is possible to go into "caffeine overdose," which causes symptoms of nausea and lightheadedness, as well as respiratory problems.

For those women holding out until the late stages of pregnancy to enjoy caffeine again, the wait may be even longer than expected. Late in the pregnancy, the baby will absorb caffeine from the mother, and at this stage, the caffeine can cause increased fetal heart rate, increased breathing rate, and tremors. Also, babies born to women with high levels of caffeine consumption late in the pregnancy were likely to spend more time awake in the days following birth. Many tired parents of newborns want their babies to sleep well, so the avoidance of caffeine in late pregnancy is essential for the baby to establish good sleeping patterns, and essential for the parents' peace of mind as well! Even breast-feeding mothers can pass caffeine into their baby's system, so while low to moderate caffeine levels will not harm the baby, any amount of caffeine will be passed from mother to baby, metabolized by the baby's system, and may have stimulating effects.

While most women and babies have no negative health effects from low to moderate caffeine consumption, caffeine sensitivity varies in each individual mom and baby. If you are normally caffeine sensitive, take care to avoid it during pregnancy, as the effects of caffeine are greater because it is more slowly metabolized in pregnant women. Avoid caffeine containing foods such as chocolate, coffee flavored ice creams and yogurts, and stick to fruity desserts like pies. Be sure to stay well hydrated with beverages such as decaffeinated tea, juice, and water.

How do you break the caffeine habit?

Caffeine addiction is powerful. Consumers can become addicted after only three consecutive days of caffeine intake. The withdrawal symptoms (lower blood pressure that leads to headache, irritability, and fatigue) can be bothersome or even severe, but they won't last long. And the following tips can help you through them as you wean yourself from caffeine:

--Keep your blood sugar up. This will keep your energy level up. Eat frequent, small meals rich in protein and complex-carbohydrate foods. Also, make sure you're taking a prenatal vitamin.

--Get some exercise every day.

--Get enough sleep.

 

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Pregnancy Tips - Dieting And Pregnancy

By: Maddy

 

Most experts agree that dieting during pregnancy is very inadvisable. However, there is less agreement on dieting before and after pregnancy. This is a difficult dilemma for the fat woman considering pregnancy-----if you choose to lose weight, will it help or harm the pregnancy (or any subsequent ones)?
 

What should I eat now that I'm pregnant?

Nutrition during pregnancy is serious business. What you eat plays a vital role in determining the health of that little one you are so anxiously awaiting. Contrary to common belief, it isn't how much you eat that's so important, but what you eat.

Doctors regularly recommend losing weight on the assumption that of course it is going to help, even though there is little study of whether this really does help or hurt in the long run. Even if losing weight offered some advantages, any possible health benefits of losing weight have to be weighed against the considerable risks of dieting itself, especially of yo-yo dieting. Thus, the dieting dilemma is a difficult one indeed.
 

There is more and more pressure on women these days to regain their pre-pregnancy figures and this is only fuelled more and more by stories of new celebrity mothers who manage to regain their figures within a matter of months after delivering their baby.

If you have the time, the money and the desire to do this, it is entirely feasible that you can and will lose the weight you gained in a healthy manner. However, if you do not fall into the tax bracket of any of the new celebrity mothers, you are probably going to go it alone and try to lose the weight.

This just won't work. Just about all of these new mothers have a diet and fitness trainer to help them with their exercise routine and dieting after pregnancy. Unless you have access to that kind of professional help, you are better off using the “nine months on, nine months off” rule.
 

This simply means that it took you nine months to put on the weight, you should wait and gradually lose the weight over a similar nine month period of time. When you go to think about it, this is actually very reasonable considering all the demands that you will have on your time with not only a newborn infant on your hands, but also your normal routine.

This is why you need to be careful when thinking about dieting after pregnancy. For one thing you need to be as sensible about this as you were about your diet during your pregnancy, and for another thing, if you are breastfeeding your newborn, you will need strength and the proper nutrition to get you through the day.
 

The Post-Pregnancy Diet

Whether a woman breastfeeds or not, the secret to post-pregnancy nutrition is to gradually regain a desirable figure, while maintaining or restocking nutrient stores. In addition, since some babies are planned and others are surprises, it's never too late to start nourishing the next baby by continuing to eat a diet based on fresh fruits and vegetables, nonfat milk products, whole grains, and protein-rich beans and meats.

Most doctors emphasize on getting enough calories through your pregnancy diet - which is why even if you are overweight, you've got to have pregnancy weight gain; if not, your own body fat will be used to support the pregnancy. Your body produces ketones and if this happens, it is harmful for your baby. And that's not advisable. On the other hand, putting on more pregnancy weight than you should is also risky, especially if you don't lose it in at least six months after delivery - as you will be at high-risk for obesity later. If you are underweight, make sure you gain enough weight, especially during the second and third trimesters, because you don't want your baby to be born pre term or smaller than it should.

 

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